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This same thing happened in the US. I forget the new station, but they released stats on the election days before it happened. whatever, no one would ever believe it happens here though...

Here's the story. It was KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona. They displayed a banner at the bottom of the screen announcing the exact percentages by which Obama defeated Romney with 99% of results in - more than two weeks before the election.

The station claims it was a mistaken display of a test graphic. Could be that's what happened in Azerbaijan, too, if we want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Do we?

Perhaps Tesla is starting to learn what PR is about. However Elon Musk's response to the last road test was defensive and rude. Elon Musk may be a genius and a useful slave driver when it concerns production, but in PR he is an idiot who cannot be allowed to speak publicly. Many excellent engineers have the same trait. The later analysis done by others is more cool-headed.

Regardless of all that, the exit clause of "deliberate abuse" of the battery is pretty open-ended. Who determines if the battery was abused? I should actually rephrase: who is the only person|company on the planet that can come to such conclusion? In other words, I do not trust Tesla because for all their company history they attacked the messenger and stuck him with a bill. To compare, a Prius's NiMH battery is unconditionally, short of a crash, warrantied for 10 years. Very few batteries ever went bad, and in each case the batteries were replaced by Toyota under warranty. I have reason to trust Toyota in this aspect because they do what they promise.

It's interesting to note that concerns about longevity of Prius's battery were also voiced on the Internet, just as they are now voiced about EVs. There was only one process that alleviated those concerns, and that was personal experience of millions of car owners. For example, without those owners we would have never learned that the heat in Arizona significantly hurts Leaf's performance. Per Nissan, it would be all peachy.

Seriously? You recommend this much overkill?

Well, of course that's not feasible. But an EV in the garage, plugged into 240V, 100A circuit is a dangerous thing. There were several fires caused by a plugged Volt (and more that were not caused by a Volt that was in the same garage.) There was even fire in a parking lot, with Karma. Batteries are dangerous things; one of my friends charged batteries for radios, and he had to do it in an enclosure that protected everyone from explosion if it were to happen. Boeing got hit with battery fire, as were several notebook manufacturers. Gasoline fire, on the other hand, is rare, unless the car is destroyed in a wreck - then all bets are off. Gasoline will not self-ignite; but a battery can; a plugged charger that is capable of 100A charge current is just one p-n junction away from a spectacular failure; and there are many of those junctions in a charger, and they all were made by the lowest bidder somewhere between Taiwan and Philippines.

checking to see that the car is still charging once a month would be more than sufficient.

I'm not so sure. If the power fails one week after the caretaker checks it, the battery in a Roadster will be a brick by the next visit. As you say, Tesla may have fixed this, I don't know, but that's what killed those Roadsters. Tesla is adamant that their EVs must be always plugged in, hell or high water. (BTW, how do all these EVs react to being submerged? If a car falls into a river, what happens? A gas car just stalls.)

The article has the following quote:

"Niesluchowski's wife, Susan, insisted her husband is a good man and great father who did nothing wrong. She said the software was authorized by a previous administration..."

However, since he was fired, it's not likely that he was able to present proof of authorization to the school board. For the record, I can't imagine how they came up with $1M for damages. If the computers were running all night and day regardless of whether SETI@home was running or not, you're looking at component wear and tear and additionally power consumption of virtually zero.

Or the news. Google road rage shooting, it happens sometimes, a confrontation turns deadly because somebody was armed.

Summary doesn't make it clear that the Sheriff in question is Joe Arpaio, a sadistic, authoritarian monster that that believes in making prison as demeaning and painful affair as possible no matter what the offense. He's a sick, twisted psychopath that needs to be stopped at all cost.

Yes, it is him (here), although i had to do a bit of google searching for his name to come up...

"officials were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have hacked into the store's security system"

"If they can access the Internet, they can get to anything"

"Anyone in the whole world could have access, if that's what really happened"

What kind of idiot would connect the security system to the Internet so that 'they' could get to anything. Didn't they put it on a private VPN or use a password even?

"The FBI was looking into whether the calls to the banks and stores were being placed from overseas"

I thought DCSNet was designed to provide instant access to such information. Provides absolutly no evidence of any such hacking. Sounds to me like a low level extortion plot apart from the mention of the (scary) Internet and hackers (even more scary). Since when do sophisticated thieves use Western Union and wire themselves $3,000 with a $150 service charge. Who paid the charge I wonder.

We get bomb threats here all the time, so don't take any notice ...

This is from the article I linked. "The investigation has not led us to believe this information was taken for the purpose of being used by a foreign government or terrorists to attack us," said Deborah McCarley, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Phoenix. "This does not appear to be terrorist-related." AZCentral is more concerned with reactions from politicians think about something they know no more about than any of us.

Why is AZCentral interviewing politicians about this case and not people involved in the investigation? AZC doesn't even mention that Palo Verde has already changed their system to not let anyone gain access to any files after they are no longer employed by them. This story really isn't a big deal. If he was able to steal classified information on designs of a nuclear reactor, that'd be one thing, but this is just another case of the media trying to make it a bigger deal than it really is.

Not very good that when the prosecutors couldn't convict him for the porn they still wanted to stick some conviction on him! What's the idea that someone handing copies of playboy to their friends be convicted of a crime? There's nothing illegal in that magazine. The US have some weird attitudes to tits and nudity (playboy ain't really porn).

I agree with you, especially on your last point. In this particular case, anyone living or working in Arizona shouldn't be surprised by this kind of prosecution. From what I read about this case, it takes place in Maricopa County (Phoenix,Scottsdale,Mesa). That especially sucks for the kid. Arizona prides itself on still being the "old west", and the prosecutors and sheriffs there are very heavy-handed to the point of being draconian. Several of the sheriffs even sport the stereotypical old western sheriff look (funny hats and mustaches included). Sometimes, the law enforcement atmosphere there feels like a perversion of "Gunsmoke" with emphasis placed on maximum punishment, and barring that, public humiliation.

The most notorious example is Maricopa county's sheriff, Joe Arpaio. He's nicknamed "America's toughest sheriff" for the tactics he uses and his treatment of prisoners (non-convicts included). He still likes to assemble posses from among civilians. He loves to be in front of the camera. He's not giving speeches every night, but he does like to make his presence known. Many of the locals love him; but many are afraid of him. Some even argue that he is abusive.

He makes his prisoners wear pink in order to humiliate them. He forces them to live in his outdoor "tent city" suffering harsh desert conditions (bare in mind that not all convicts in tent city are violent offenders). He installed webcams in Phoenix's Madison Street Jail so that the world could see prisoners in the world's first jailcam; however, it got him sued since these "prisoners" were only in jail, hence not convicted criminals. In one case, a female prisoner was broadcasted over the web using a toilet without knowing she was being watched.

I once saw him parade a chain of crying middled-aged women (all Mexican illegals) before a row of flashing cameras. He's been criticized for torturing prisoners, allowing prisoners to die in his custody, and in allowing officers to take advantage of prostitutes in custody (see Wikipedia entry). There have even been complaints that he has allowed undercover police in prostitution raids to receive full services from prostitutes before making arrests, resulting in nearly 60 arrests being dropped.

Recently, the Phoenix area has been experiencing freezing weather below 30 F, and inmates in Arpaio's outdoor prison "tent city" have complained about the cold. The sheriff's response was that if they didn't want to suffer, they should not have committing crimes. (sorry no citation, check KPHO.com). Most recently, he has listed outstanding warrants for approx. 70,000 people on the sheriff's website, and has encouraged all citizens to read the list and report individuals they identify on the list.

Ironically, as harsh as Arpaio is, and as popular as the sheriff is among hardcore justice lovers; he has really been successful in only instilling complete fear in citizens who aren't would-be criminals. Maricopa county still suffers from extremely violent crimes including regular home invasions, teen rapes, and the Baseline Killer which made national news last year. I believe there is even an ASU study that was funded using tax dollars under Arpaio's control that reviewed his tent city prision, and then determined that Arpaio's tactics are largely ineffective.

Maricopa County, Arizona, is home for over three million Americans. It is a place where dealing with crime figures is the number one election issue. At the center of this community is the self-styled toughest sheriff in the West, Joe Arpaio. Sheriff Joe has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards crime, which has been embraced by deputies and the community alike. Part of the mission of the sheriff's office is "to operate a safe, constitutional jail system," while critics such as Amnesty International claim the sheriff's tactics are questionable and trample an individual's constitutional rights. This program provides unique access into the controversial world of "Tent City," where the sheriff and his men rule with an iron fist. He's put men and women into grueling chain gangs; legalized Wild West style posses; built a 1,200+ person prison out of Korean war tents and razor wire in the baking Arizona desert, dressed inmates into black and white striped clothing and pink underwear, given guards use of 75,000 volt electric stun guns, and with an 85% approval rating in the county proudly boasts of being on the leading edge of law enforcement and incarceration.

There have been many cases of crap happening to people in there.

I suspect the bump was because the earlier post was sent as "Anonymous Coward", giving it an initial score of 0 rather than 1, making it easier for a lazy moderator to see. After that, another lazy moderator didn't care which was timestamped first, and downmodded the other. Not fair, really, but most people with mod points don't bother with the part of the guidelines that says "browse at -1".

And, according what looks to be an Arizona TV station, the two stories are linked.